Rendang - Types

Types

In Minangkabau culinary tradition, there are stages on cooking meat in spicy coconut milk. Its category is according to the liquid content in cooked coconut milk, ranges from the soupy most wet to the most dry: Gulai — Kalio — Rendang. The ingredients of gulai, kalio and rendang is almost identical with the exceptions that gulai usually uses less red chilli pepper and more turmeric, while rendang uses richer spices. If pieces of meat are cooked in spicy coconut milk and the process stopped right when the meat is done and the coconut milk has reached its boiling point, you have gulai. If the process continues well until the coconut milk is partly evaporated with brownish colored meats, then you have kalio. When the process continued hours more until the liquid completely evaporated and the color turns to dark brown almost black in color, then you have rendang. According to this notions, the real rendang is those with less liquid contents. The colors also indicate the differences; gulai have light yellow color, kalio is brown, and rendang is dark brown. However today, there are two kinds of rendangs commonly found: dried and wet.